You are officially 15 months old today! Time surely needs to slow down just a little. You have grown so much this last month developmentally to me. You continue to amaze your Daddy and I at things you understand, can say, and do. We took you to sit in Santas lap today. We started out at Bass Pro Shops for a free photo just to see how you would do. You walked to within 3 feet of him, stopped and wanted to turn around, but I picked you up and put you in Santas lap. You gave a quick glance to him and turned to the camera. No smiles, no nothing. You sat as still as you could....like you were scared to death to move. We then went to the mall a few hours later and thought you may do better...not so much. You sat as still as possible, again no smiles. Oh well, at least you didn't smile. And don't worry, You've been a good girl this year, so I'm sure Santa is going to show up. Last year we went shopping on your December 3 month birthday, and again this year we did the same. I think that will be our new tradition to go on a family outing to finish our Christmas shopping on December 9 every year. We had a very enjoyable family day!
You are EVERYWHERE. You like to cuddle when you first wake up for about 20-30 minutes while you drink a glass of milk. Then, you want down and the moving begins. You are in to everything. You touch everything in the house at least once on any given day. You travel from room to room as if you have no fear of going anywhere alone. I constantly have to chase you down to watch you because you are a sneaky little princess! Your newest adventure is climbing. Oh my...tears my nerves up. You have learned that you can climb into one of the shorter chairs in the den and then onto the couch. You now like to jump and run around on the couch and think it is a game to do so. You just laugh. It's cute as long as we are standing there. I'll pat the cushion for you to sit down, and you'll bend over, pat it and start running again.
You can now say MOMMY! and DADDY! For the longest it was Mama and Dada, which was fine, we LOVED it, but it has now developed into the actual MOMMY and DADDY....and WE LOVE THAT MORE! I didn't want to be Mom or Mama...I wanted you to call us Mommy and Daddy and you do!!!! It's so sweet! You'll come up to us and say, Mommy or Daddy and it just melts our hearts. You can also say "Ba" for sheep and although we call your paci a Doodle Bug you call it a "ba" as well. We think you are trying to say "bug" and it just comes out "ba." Regardless, when we refer to it as a Doodlebug you know exactly what we are talking about and reply "ba" in return. You can say purple, Ali, shoe (which is probably your favorite word), no no, uh oh, pea, tee tee, puppy, water, "ring ring" for the phone, "re re" for read, "teet teet" for a bird, deer which usually comes out dea, and you can say Jesus. ADORABLE! Of course, if you are in a mood not to say any one of these words at any given time, you don't. You are stubborn and if we try to get you to say one of them in front of people, sometimes you like to make us out to be fibbers and you will hold your tongue. Silly girl!
You still sleep with us at night. We get some funny looks from people about this, but we love it and it doesn't bother us. You go to bed between 8:30 and 9, wake up around 8-8:30, which is between 11-12 hours of sleep for you and at least 9-10 hours of sleep for us, so we don't mind you being in the bed with us one bit! The way we see it, one day you will not want to sleep and cuddle with us, so we are soaking up all we can now.
You still take one nap a day. I have started putting you to bed between 1 and 1:30 now so you are up around 4 and go to bed early. If you sleep much past 4, you tend to want to be awake until 10 or later and that's not an option...unless it's a special occassion!
You love to be outside to run and play. You are all over the yard.
Your favorite books right now are Go Dog Go, and several of your Christmas books. You LOVE to read. In fact, we spend 3/4 of our day reading. You come up with a book, say "re re" and we read. I love the fact that you like to read and hope that continues.
You are amazed at all the trees and lights. When we turn on the trees each night, your eyes just light up and you smile so big. Everyone told me last year there is no way I'd have 7 trees this year and have all my decorations up...well, I"ve proved them all wrong. Everything I normally put out is out....even the china set on the dining room table. YOU HAVE DONE GREAT with everything. You take an ornament off the tree here and there but nothing major. The only decoration you haven't done so great with are the presents. You think you can unwrap them the second I put them under the tree. I tried for over a week to work with you on this, but didn't succeed so the presents are now piled on the guest room bed.
You love to pull open drawers and play in them. Your favorite is my underwear drawer. You can open it by yourself and will walk out of our room with bras and undies around your neck. Silly girl. One day, you got quiet and I found you in your room, having emptied ALL of your dresser drawers. If only you could pick up your messes.
You are a wonderful eater. The only thing so far you haven't been fond of us mashed potatoes. You will eat a few bites of them and then you are done. I'd say your favorite fruit is kiwi, favorite food would be pork chops or BBQ, baked beans, and bananas.
We still go to music one day a week. You are doing great. I love seeing you learn new things in there and interact with the teacher and other kids there. Music is just an all around good way to learn. Usually our treat after music on Thursdays is to take a little lunch trip to Chic-Fil-A. We aren't huge fast food eaters, but you love CFA!
Your favorite toys right now are your dancing dog, snowmen, and your Little People nativity. You wear the batteries out of them and love talking to your nativity set. You move the little people around just like you know what they are doing. TOO SWEET!
You love to play my piano. You love to chase Lulu and Elsa. I have to keep them up most of the time because until you learn to back off, I'm just not confident either of you wouldn't make the other aggravated.
You have learned to flush the toilet and do so about 10 times a day, even when not needed. When we go to the bathroom now, you say "te te." I"m thinking that after Christmas, we may begin trying to get you interested in potty training.
You love bath time. You play, and play, and play. You love having your teeth brushed.
You never cry unless you are just overly tired or overly hungry. Can't blame you for either one. And if you don't want to do something, you let it be known.
We do pop your hand for certain things. We don't believe in yelling no for every little thing you shouldn't do. You know what you are allowed and are not allowed to do. When we do have to resort to popping your hand, we tell you 2 times. On the second time, we pop our hand. Usually that's as far as it has to go. You know on the 3rd time, your hand is getting fried. You actually have gotten to wear on the 2nd time, you pop your own hand and that's the end of it. It's actually quite funny.
You still hate pictures. Well, posed pictures. If we capture candid pics of you, you usually will smile. But if we do posed pictures, you stare at the camera, no smiles at all.
You are our pride and joy. Life was so boring without you. I am so blessed to be your Mommy and your Daddy is blessed to be your Daddy. We love you with our whole heart. I am so blessed to be able to stay home with you. I just can't imagine it any other way. You are a Mommy's girl and I'm so glad for that.
We love you our princess!
